Advice Needed - CH & Immersion timers

dodgyleg

Hi All, after 6 months in a new house I've decided its time to do away with the old analouge APT timer on our CH system.

The setup we have at present is an indoor boiler and a dual light switch that controls 2 zones - upstairs and downstairs. No thermostats anywhere that I can find in the house. Boiler also heats the hot water. The APT Timer is just before the 2 zone switches.

So I want to get a digital timer that would control the 2 zones individually as needed and also the hot water individually so that we can heat the water in summer without heating rads or having to turn them on and off at each rad!.

Is there a timer out there that will allow us to do this? Should we have thermostats for each zone, if so do these replace the dual light switch that we have for switching on upstairs and downstairs zones?

Also we have a separate electrical immersion switch in our hot press, On/Off and Sink/Bath, no timer. I'd like to put a timer on here also, is there a digital immersion timer that can do both bath/sink settings? Or would I just wire a timer in before the on/off sink/bath switch and leave it set to sink or bath only?

Any help or advice would be gratefully recieved,

Thanks.

davelerave

is the cylinder coil plumbed separate or tied in with upstairs rads?if it is separate you can wire for stats and 3-channels with a digital timer or apts.the timer for the immersion is wired before the
existing immersion switch

2011

I want to get a digital timer that would control the 2 zones individually as needed and also the hot water individually so that we can heat the water in summer without heating rads or having to turn them on and off at each rad!.

What you want is 3 zones for your CH system:

1) Upstairs rads
2) Downstairs rads
3) Domestic hot water

Hortsmann make a 3 channel timer that will do exactly what you want:



There is even a boost button for each zone.

Solving this electrically is only 1/2 of the problem. You may have to get your plumbing changed to suit. For better control and to save money you should have one stat per zone. There is a drawing showing how this can be wired in the "circuit diagram" sticky.

is there a digital immersion timer that can do both bath/sink settings?

The short answer is no. You could buy a 2 channel digital timer and have it switching contactors to do what you want. This would be expensive and pointless IMHO. Heating water electrically is an expensive way to get hot water! Use you boiler and save money. If you have 3 zones as described above you can heat water quickly for less money.

dodgyleg

Thanks for the info guys. Looks like the water heating is tied to the upstairs Zone...could it still be possible to seperate the 2 so that we had control on the hot water seperately?

davelerave

dodgyleg wrote: »

Thanks for the info guys. Looks like the water heating is tied to the upstairs Zone...could it still be possible to seperate the 2 so that we had control on the hot water seperately?

if there's a 'tee' for the cylinder coil on the main pipes you can zone them separately.

dodgyleg

Thanks D for the super quick response. this 'tee' you've mentioned i take it this would be near the boiler itself and not the tank cylinder in the hotpress?

davelerave

if there are 2 loops for upstairs (coil and rads ) or 1 loop and a tee (to rads and coil) you can separate them electrically